


What Happens Next

by ambiguous_nights



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 01:26:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17295056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguous_nights/pseuds/ambiguous_nights
Summary: Warning: This is a story about suicide and deals with character's reactions to it. Be wary. May be triggering.





	What Happens Next

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This is a story about suicide and deals with character's reactions to it. Be wary. May be triggering.

It was Cody that found the body a few hours later. The data pad clattered against the metal floor as he rushed forward and tried to find a pulse. He yelled into his com for a medic, though it was far too late for that. The General is dead. His Jedi is dead. Not in battle, but by his own hand, on a starship surrounded by troopers. He should have been safe with them. He shouldn't have been alone. 

There’s a sheet over the body of his master. Its white and stainless, hiding the devastating injury and the pale skin. He can’t stop himself from slowly lifting away the top half of the sheet. The hole burned through the skull by lightsaber is perfectly cauterized. There was no blood on the floor. No need for clean-up. He’d even stacked what items he owned in a neat pile, making sure the room was ready to be passed off to someone else.   
Anakin stared at the body. Rage was the first emotion to surface. How dare he? He had a duty, to his men, to Anakin, to the Jedi. How could he just leave? After all he had done, he couldn’t even face the consequences. “He left us,” Anakin says, watching as Helix came to stand on the opposite side of the body. “He left me.”   
“He did,” Helix says.   
“Why?”   
Helix looks slightly confused by that question. “Don’t you know?” And then Helix is gone. 

“Why?” Anakin asks.   
Cody watches him, wondering at Skywalker’s confusion. “Why, what sir?”   
“Why did he leave?”   
Cody shrugs. “He wasn’t a trained soldier. Not like us. The war was bound to get to him sooner or later. It was too much, especially after that deal with Maul and Satine. And you wouldn't speak to him. It was just one thing too many. You should see the scans Helix would run on his brain when the General wasn’t watching. It was only a matter of time.”   
“Why didn’t you do anything?”   
“The medics aren’t trained to handle it. Not with Jedi.” Cody frowns. “You’re his vod. Didn’t you know?” 

“Why did he leave?” Anakin asks, facing the one Jedi he hopes might be able to tell him the truth.   
Quinlan Vos nearly laughs at that. “I warned you. Remember?”   
“What? No.”   
“He’s always had a tendency for destruction. It only got worse with the war. And after that undercover thing, he lost you. Then Maul came back, beat him, and killed the woman he loved, I invited him on a mission, tried to clear out his head a bit. He was a bit too thrilled to go on what could easily become a suicide mission. We both survived, obviously, but I commed you after. I told you that you would lose him if something between you didn’t change.”   
“He never said anything.”   
“Of course, he didn’t. Jedi aren’t raised to reach out. He didn’t know how. I tried to help, believe me I did. But he didn’t trust me as he did you. He would have done anything to make you happy, to help you. Mourn him, Skywalker. Then find a way to end this war.” 

“Obi-wan is dead.”   
Ahsoka’s expression crumples at the news. Her holographic figure flickers slightly as she tries to regain control of her emotions. “How?”   
Anakin bows his head slightly. “Suicide.”   
Silence. Ahsoka looks up at her former master. “Where are you?”   
“Above Ryloth.”   
“I’ll be there in an hour.” 

Rex stands at attention as Ahsoka’s small starship lands in the hanger. She’s taller now, her lekku longer. She doesn’t carry her lightsabers. “His body is in the medical bay. We haven’t been able to send it back to Coruscant for burial yet,” Rex says.   
“And Anakin?”   
“In the med bay.”   
The pair walks through the cold hallways of the star destroyer. “How are you handling it?” she asks.   
“Death is not something I am unfamiliar with. Nor suicide. We may be altered to be specifically resistant to mental illness, but we aren’t perfect. Some brothers just don’t make it.”   
“I’m sorry, Rex. I never knew.”   
“We never said. And I ask that you don’t say anything either.”   
“Why not?”   
“They’d be taken back to Kamino to be reconditioned. And that is a fate far worse than death.” 

“You’ll have to let him go,” Ahsoka says as she stands beside Anakin. He clings to a hand long cold.   
“I can’t,” he says. “There’s all this anger inside me, mostly at him, but at the war too and everyone else. There’s no justice to be had. No revenge. He did this to himself.”   
“Then find something constructive to redirect your anger at. Be angry at him for as long as you need, but you won’t ever find peace until you can let the rage go.”   
“That’s not very Jedi of you.”   
“I’m not a Jedi. But you are. And so was he. You’ve hurt each other and now you need to find a way to forgive.”   
“I’ve never been good with forgiveness.”   
“I know.” She removes his hand from Obi-wan’s and takes it into her own. “It’s okay to cry, Anakin. We will all be here for you.” She gives his hand a squeeze. “I promise.” 

“What happens to us?” Boil asks.   
“You’ll either be assigned a new general or dispersed among the other battalions,” Cody says.   
“Did we fail?”   
“Not all battles can be won.”   
The clones sit in the unusually quiet barracks, watching as their brothers pass by. “Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la. Look after him, vod. Keep him safe until the rest of us get there.”   
“I will.”   
Boil nods and turns off the safety on his blaster. “Ready?”   
Cody nods. His hand closes around the lightsaber in his hand. “I’m coming, General.”


End file.
